Academy City, August 25th, 2011

"Now did you really think you were going to get away with that, old timer?" said Accelerator as he backed the older man against the alley wall. "Thanks to some piss-ant Level Zero ruining my chances of finishing my latest experiment, I've suddenly been left with a lot of free time on my hands. Unfortunately for you, that means I caught you snooping around one of my hangouts, so you better start talking. I'm in the mood for a good story."

The man didn't react with fear like most of Accelerator's victims once they realized who they were facing. His inaction made Accelerator's anger grow. Using his Vector Transformation, he tapped the wall behind them and knocked the man down with the misshapen brick and concrete he had altered.

"Are you a spy for some other company? Maybe you got wind of the last experiment I was doing and wanted a piece of the action? Well, sorry to tell you but that's not moving forward. The cannon fodder turned out to be a little more... livelier than I had expected. But that doesn't mean the fun has to end! No, not when I have creepy weirdos like you sneaking around where they don't belong."

"Look, kid. I see you have a decent amount of power, but you don't want to start anything with the group I represent or me. While it's unfortunate that you happened to catch me while I was on a job, that doesn't mean that we can't just go our separate ways and move on with our lives." He brushed the crumbled concrete debris off of himself as he stood up and walked closer to Accelerator.

"Haha, that's where you're wrong, friend, I don't play that whole 'live and let live' crap. You're really starting to piss me off, so how about you just shut your mouth and accept your punishment." Just as Accelerator was about to use his Vector Control to start choking him, someone came running around the alley's corner and into view of the whole scene.

"Hey, it's you again! What, you got tired of beating and killing girls, so you're moving on to the elderly now?!" said Kamijou Touma as he recognized Accelerator as the guy he had fought and defeated only days before. Their fight and his surprising win were the reason the Sister's Project was now suspended indefinitely.

"That Level Zero! Oh man, you have a bad habit of showing up when you're not wanted! And despite what you may think, this old bastard deserves what's coming to him. But rest assured Zero, once I finish with him, we'll have ourselves a rematch." He noticed that Touma was staring at the older man that he had pinned against the wall. "What, relative of yours or something?"

"No... But I've seen this man before. It's been a while, but... I know! It was back a few years ago when I brought that girl to the hospital. You took her out of my arms and then disappeared! I went back to check on her, but no one had any records of her being admitted to the hospital. What happened to that girl with the purple hair? Who was she?"

Accelerator's eyes grew wide with shock when he heard Touma describe the girl. "What did you say? About the girl, what did she look like? How do you know her?"

"Well, it's been four or five years, but I can't forget that long violet hair. I was looking for my new school and found her injured in an alley like this one. I brought her to the hospital, and this guy was the doctor on staff and took her from me in the lobby. Something didn't sit right with me after that, but I brushed it aside as nothing."

The older man looked at Touma and smiled, "Well, who would have thought I'd end up crossing paths with you again, kid. The girl's fine, that's all you need to know. Listen to this albino bastard and take off while you still have time. This is setting me back with my duties enough as it is." Suddenly, Accelerator sent a chunk of the damaged wall flying through the air, striking the older man against his temple, knocking him out cold.

"Now that he's quiet, I want to know why you thought it would be a good idea to hand her over to some creepy fuck like this guy?! Well, first I should ask, was she wearing a gray bodysuit?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I do remember she was wearing something like that, with her hair out. Wait, you weren't the one that... Were you the one that hurt her?" Touma asked.

Accelerator didn't hear the question he was asked, once he'd learned what the girl looked like he was stunned and speechless. There's no way... How could she have survived the fall or even the stress of stealing Kihara's power? But if there's a chance she's still alive and out there somewhere...

"Hey! I asked you a question, and I want an answer! Did you hurt her? She was covered in that building's debris when I found her, did you cause that building to collapse? If so, then you're angry with the wrong person here! I brought her to the hospital to save her life. Back then I had no reason not to trust someone that looked like a doctor! Although, I did feel like something wasn't right, but didn't act on it."

Accelerator barely paid attention to Touma's rambling. The possibility that Sumire Yuuki was still alive stirred up feelings that had been hidden away for five years. The night he turned ten played in his mind like a film reel. He remembered her slipping out of his grasp and falling away from him, as though in slow motion. The last words he'd heard her speak, telling him that she refused to break him echoed within his mind. He'd used all the experiments and training after that to dull the pain of loss, to forget the reason for it. He thought he had succeeded, but the ache in his chest only emphasized his failure in that as well.

"You've become a much lower priority, Zero. Stay out of my way, I'm going to find out what this son of a bitch did with her."

Touma answered back, "Not likely, pal. Me not listening to my instincts when it came to letting her go with him are part of the reason she's gone now. I need to make this right, and whether you want me there or not, I'm going to help find her."

Accelerator stared Touma down, then relented, "Fine, but don't get in my way. If you slow me down, I won't hesitate to tear you apart. My patience with this matter is not something you want to test right now."

"Fair enough, now we need to start getting some clues. If this guy was still conscious we could try to get some info out of him," said Touma as he tried slapping the old guy in the face to try to wake him up.

Accelerator tapped his foot on the ground next to the old man and used his ability to lift him off the ground and suspend him in the air, almost as though he was standing on his own two feet. "Or we could just search the guy and see what we can find on him. An old-timer like him probably won't be as tech-savvy as us," he said as he started rummaging through the man's pockets. He pulled out some papers and began to examine each one. "His name is Paul Case. All this crap looks like a bunch of nonsense to me. Golden Dawn, what the hell is that anyway? That name sounds like an old folk's home. Wait, there's an address that isn't in Academy City."

"Let me see, I've spent some time out of the city, so maybe I'd recognize it," said Touma. "Yeah, I'm familiar with that area, it's a small town. The only thing of note there is the hospital. Maybe that's where she was taken, or even where she may still be?"

Accelerator nodded as he pulled out his cell phone and made a call. "That's possible, I'm getting in touch with someone that may be able to provide more detail to this Golden Dawn crap."

"Yomikawa speaking," said the voice on the other end of the line.

"It's me, I have a question for you. Does the name 'Golden Dawn' mean anything to you?" asked Accelerator.

"Hello to you too, kid. Nice to hear from you, although you only get in touch when you need something. As for the name, I've heard of them, but I don't have very much background information on them. Historically, they're a Magic cabal that used to carry a lot of power within the Magic community. Rumor has it that some of the higher-ups in Academy City used to be involved in stuff like that. Don't quote me on that though; you know how rumors are in this city."

Accelerator nodded, "Yeah, I'm well aware. Thanks for the info..."

"I heard what you've been up to lately, kid. I'm in no place to pass judgment, but I don't think she'd be very proud of the way you're doing things."

"Oh yeah? Well maybe I'll find out for myself what she thinks," he replied as he hung up the phone, clenching his fist. As he put his phone back in his pocket, he turned back to Touma. "Guess it's time for a road trip, we're going to check out that hospital."

...

"Hello boys, is there something I can help you with?" said the nurse at the front desk.

"Yes, we're here to check on a patient that may have been admitted here. It's possible she could still be here. She had long violet hair, and was probably very seriously injured when she was brought in," said Touma, who had to argue with Accelerator for quite a while before it was decided that he should do the talking.

"Oh yes, I know who that is. She was brought here by... by... Now that's strange, I know she was found injured on the side of the road, and some kind people offered to pay for her care. I just don't remember who they were or what they looked like! But yes, there was a young lady here that was in a coma for quite a while, nearly five years if I recall."

Accelerator blurted out, "Well where is she now?"

The startled nurse answered him, "I... I think someone from her family came to get her once she started showing signs of consciousness. Let me go pull her file." As the nurse started rifling through the filing cabinet, Touma glared at Accelerator, to which he just shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Ahh yes, here it is. Hmm, she was admitted here five years ago like I thought, and there's a note in here to call this number when she started to wake up. I don't remember who it was, but I do remember her leaving here. Although it was odd that she left in her hospital gown, they didn't have a change of clothes for her. I suppose since she was in the hospital for so long, it would be hard to know what size clothes to bring for her."

"Thank you; you've been a lot of help Miss. You wouldn't happen to know of any places near here that she may have gone?" asked Touma.

"Well, if she was from the area, she may have been going back to Musutafu. With a Quirk like hers, she could do a lot of good as a hero," replied the nurse.

Both Accelerator and Touma looked puzzled and answered back in unison, "What's a Quirk?"